1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to plug and socket housing of cable assemblies and more particularly in a preferred embodiment to housings for environmentally sealed cable assemblies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In prior art cable assemblies where the sockets and plugs carry several different sizes of terminals, a problem exists in forming housings, arranging primary locking fingers in terminal receiving channels, locking the locking fingers in the annular recess areas of the terminals with pads disposed on a secondary locking bar. In forming a housing for holding large and small diameter terminals, a problem exists when molding such a housing. In housings where terminal receiving channels for small pins are disposed adjacent to one another, the molding material cools and shrinks evenly. But when a receiving channel for large diameter terminals is placed adjacent to a receiving channel for small terminals, the material between these two terminals do not cool and shrink at the same rate as the material between two small receiving channels. Hence, during the molding process, steps are taken to cause the walls between the large receiving channel and a small receiving channel to cool and shrink at the same rate that the walls between the small receiving terminals cool and shrink. To remedy this problem, the wall's thickness between a large and a small receiving channel is reduced to provide a thickness comparable to the thickness between a pair of small receiving channels. A slot or "lighter" is formed to reduce the wall thickness. This slot prevents the material from collapsing between the terminals due to the fact that it cools slower than the materials between two small channels.
Another problem that exists in the prior art concerns the primary locking fingers. The locking fingers are formed from resilient material and arranged in the housing during the molding process. The fingers are used to lock the terminals in the housing by engaging an annular recess of the terminals. Since the diameter of the small terminals and the large terminals are different, the prior art housings provided space for mounting the large terminals on different horizontal center lines from the center lines provided for small terminals. Because of this, the locking fingers for the large and small terminals have different heights.
To compensate for the different heights of the locking fingers of the prior art, the secondary locking bar carried pads of different heights for the large and small terminals. An approach that forms different size pads on the locking bar was needed during the process of forming locking bars.
In an effort to minimize the problem of molding different size pads for the locking bars and forming different horizontal center lines for the large and small terminals, and to eliminate the need for providing "lighters", a search for various other housing structures was initiated. This search resulted in the improved cable assembly housing of the present invention.